E3 2005: Flipnic Hands-On

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Pinball wizardry -- with several twists.

By Justin Cheng

Pinball games have remained pretty much unchanged for awhile -- after all, why mess with success? But Flipnic: Ultimate Pinball takes the stagnant genre and spices it up a bit with crazier tables, mission objectives, and even a little bit of shooting. Yes, shooting. Suffice it to say that this isn't your usual pinball game.

Don't get me wrong: This is still pinball, complete with bumpers and flippers, and a metal ball. There are, of course, two buttons for the flippers, and you can nudge the table like you can in the other pinball games. But one of the flipper buttons (left on the D-pad) is also used to raise and lower certain bumpers, adding more strategy to the game, and the other flipper button (the circle button) is used for contextual actions -- sometimes you press it to jump, and sometimes you press it to do the aforementioned shooting in the Metallurgy world, where you have to use your laser-equipped ball to shoot down some annoying UFOs.

Besides Metallurgy, there are four other themed tables: Biology, Optics, Geometry, and Theology. Each world is composed of several island-like areas -- each area is almost a table in and of itself, and there are 70 areas in all -- connected by the various railways. And there are some ramps and jumps in the mix, too. But what really sets Metallurgy apart is the insane infrastructure. These railways make Los Angeles' freeways look simple in comparison.

I also played the Biology table, which is chock-full of lush vegetation and even a few animals (including some butterflies and a hungry, butterfly-eating chameleon). In fact, one of the missions (there are 100-plus missions in all) has you hitting the butterfly-covered bumpers before the chameleon eats them all. Later, the whole table freezes over. In order to progress, you have to slam the silver ball into a frozen wall. Once you've smacked it enough times, the wall shatters, and you're faced with a vertical labyrinth, wherein you must time all of your flipper presses to get to the ball to the top. Definitely not an easy feat, but still pretty fun.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to play any of the other levels because they weren't unlocked, but supposedly Optics is a neon-filled environment, Geometry harkens back to old school 2D gaming, and Theology is, appropriately enough, physically above all of the other tables -- you can supposedly see some of the other tables below you as you play.

There are also some multiplayer games, like basketball, wherein you use your flippers to get as many balls as possible into your opponent's goal. With all of these features at budget price, Flipnic: Ultimate Pinball seems to be an entertaining alternative to the same old thing. We'll just have to wait until July to see how it all comes together.